


Emerald Servant

by Yizuki_Khonsu



Series: One-shots and Unfinished Works [6]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender, Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-15
Updated: 2017-07-15
Packaged: 2018-12-02 12:14:20
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,456
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11509218
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yizuki_Khonsu/pseuds/Yizuki_Khonsu
Summary: Harry wanted to escape the Dursleys. Her parents were wary of this foreigner that appeared mysteriously in their garden, but he was the same age as their daughter. They decide to let him stay. Toph had always wanted a friend.





	Emerald Servant

Harry hated school. When locked in the cupboard under the stairs, he had longed for it, for the chance to feel the sun and stretch his legs while learning his numbers. Instead he got teachers who watched his every move under Vernon and Petunia’s insistence, kids who talked about him out of the corners of their mouths, and-

“Come back here freak!” Bullies. He shoud’ve expected it really, Dudley had always beaten him at home, whether it was blaming him for breaking Petunia’s fine china or jumping onto him from over the banister to cushion his fall Harry never failed to go a day without acquiring some sort of bruise. Now in second grade though, Dudley had found new friends who appreciated his hobby of “Freak Finding” or, as Piers had started to call it, “Harry Hunting”. Shaking such thoughts from his head, Harry bolted past the school gate and into the suburbs of Little Whining, grabbing Mrs. Number 24’s birdhouse to tighten his turn around the bushes and into the back alley between Azalea Run and Peony March. If he could just make it past there, he could disappear into the park. Despite his short stature, Harry was very strong and nimble and weird things tended to happen to him. The end result was that if he concentrated he could jump far higher than a normal eight year old and get into the taller trees that none of the other kids would even think about looking up-

“Oof!” His thoughts were cut short again as he ran into something solid and bony, toppling over from his speed. Opening his eyes he was terrified to see that it was Gregory, one of Dudley’s friends and the biggest boy in school. Scrambling to his feet Harry turned to make a break for it before the others could catch up.

“Oh no you don’t!” Harry cried out as his ankle was yanked out from underneath him. “Guys! Come quick! I caught something!” Harry pulled and scratched, but Gregory wouldn’t let go of his arms, not even when he tried to bite him. All too soon the other boys honed in on their location, Dudley puffing in at the very last. 

“Well well well! What do we have here? Looks like we caught ourselves a freak!” Dudley gloated, piggy eyes shining with malice.

“Very original Dudley. Where’d you learn that one from? Barney?” Dudley flushed red in embarrassment. 

“How’s it feel to be stupid, Freak?”

“I don’t know, you tell me!” Dudley’s face did an excellent impression of his fathers and flushed purple.

“Shut up!” 

“Never! Let me go!” He cried, twisting with new fervor against the older boys grip. Gregory just laughed and twisted his arm up behind his back. Harry cried out in pain, before he growled and lunged forward, sinking his teeth into the bullies hand. Gregory howled in pain, letting him go. Harry didn’t waste the opportunity. While the other boys were startled by his attack Harry ran through them and headed straight for Wisteria Walk. The park was out of the question now. They were too close, he wouldn’t be able to shake them by the time he got to the trees, but if he could just make it to Mrs. Figg’s house-!   
“Aaaah!!!” A scream was ripped out of Harry as an older, heavier body rammed into his side and scraped him across the pavement. Harry sobbed as he felt his skin flay from his palms and shoulders, baggy shirt ripping to shreds under the friction. 

“You think you can just bite me you little shit!” Gregory raised his fist, slamming it down into his face. Harry cried out, wriggling and squirming to get away. Gregory didn’t stop though, he just grabbed his ankle and yanked, pulling the joint out of its socket and ripping a fresh scream out of his lungs.

“Yeah Gregory! Show that freak who’s boss!”

“Fight! Fight! Fight!” The other boys chanted, making a circle around the two to ensure Harry couldn’t get away. Desperate, Harry looked around like a frightened animal, searching for a kind face among Dudley’s friends. All he saw was childish glee and cruelty. Their eyes were bright with bloodlust in the same way they shone when the seven and eight year olds were filled with sugar. A punch to the solar plexus knocked the wind out of him, and Harry whimpered as he felt something crack. Blood spilled out past his cut lip and Harry desperately tried to breathe. His eyes widened when the pain made it impossible to get another breath, his heart rate spiked and he clutched his chest, trying to breathe, before the world went dark and he knew no more.

Dudley and the others stopped cheering when they saw Harry collapse.   
“Nice one Greg! You got him good this time!” They all were chuckling as they thought he had just had enough and fallen over from pain.

“Uhhh….guys? I don’t think he’s breathing.” The street went silent as the amusement faded from the group when Piers words registered.

Dudley stuttered. “W-What do you mean?” He took a step towards the prone form of Harry. “He’s-He’s just faking it! Aren’t you Freak!” Harry didn’t respond. “Did you hear me? Answer me Freak! Harry! HARRY!!”

“He’s dead! Gregory killed him!” 

“No I didn’t!” 

“Yes you did! You killed him and now we’re all going to jail!”

“I’m telling my Mom!” 

“It was your idea!”

“Was not!” 

“Was too!”   
“Was not! You were the one who said you wanted to go Harry Hunting!”

“You were the one who wanted to teach him ‘a lesson!”   
“That wasn’t me!”

“I’m telling Mom!”

“Shut up! I’m not going to jail for you guys!” The boys continued to fight amongst themselves, getting more and more fearful, hitting and fighting each other as their panic grew.

“ENOUGH!!!” Gregory shouted, red in the face and hands trembling. “No one’s going anywhere, because no one is going to find out okay?” His voice was deadly quiet and all the boys listened to him fearfully, eyes trained on the hands that were still covered in Harry’s blood. “My dad has been digging a new flower bed in the back garden. We’re going to take this Freak’s body and dump it there. With no body they’ll assume he just ran away, and no one will know, got it?” They all nodded. Grabbing his limbs, the boys moved swiftly through the neighbors yards, the boys frantically watching for anyone who might be spying. Dudley just stayed on the road, staring at the red stain where Gregory had beaten Harry into a bloody pulp. A nearby garbage can overturned and Dudley jumped into the air, swiftly turning to the noise to see one of Mrs. Figg’s cats watching him with knowing, accusing eyes. Shuddering Dudley waddled after his friends.

 

Pain. So much pain. He could feel it throbbing with every movement. His joints ached with a dull fire and his eyelids felt glued down. He thought he could hear the patter of small feet and the thumping of a heavier tread, but his brain was too muddled to figure out why that felt like a bad thing.

“This is it.” 

Gregory? Harry tried to get up, wanting to get away before the boy decided to wail on him again, only to panic when he realised that he couldn’t move. Why couldn’t he move?!

“Quick, let’s get him into the hole before someone notices.” There was a brief feeling of weightlessness as he was tossed down somewhere. Harry wanted to scream when he hit the ground, but there didn’t seem to be any air in his lungs. As the pain faded, Harry became aware of the odd sensation of some sort of soft substance hitting his body. Harry wondered if they were throwing paper balls at him again, but the material, whatever it was, was too heavy for that. Not to mention it crumbled the second it hit his body. Curious as to what was going on, He pried his eyelids open as far as he could get them. Up above him, Dudley’s gang were shoveling dirt with their hands, digging into the ground and tossing the dirt over their shoulders, not looking at his body. Dirt. They were covering him with dirt. He was being buried alive! Harry struggled on the ground, trying to force his body to move, to twitch, to do something! They couldn’t do this! He was alive! Alive! He didn’t want to die! His lips opened to scream, only to get a mouthful of dirt from one of the boys, choking him. Harry panicked, pupils dilating wide in terror.

The world went white.

 

“Toph! Toph where are you?! Toph sweetie!” Toph ducked down under the engawa as her mother passed overhead, covering her mouth to stifle her breaths and giggles. She loved her parents, she really did, but it got so stifling being inside the house all the time. She wanted to feel the breeze and the sun on her skin, even if she couldn’t see them. Once the footsteps got far enough away, Toph popped her little head out, turning this way and that to hear for any of the servants, before dashing out into the gardens. The feel of the cool night breeze ruffling her hair, and the sensation of the long grass tickling her feet made her giggle again. Holding her arms out , Toph ran deeper into the grass, laughing at the feel of the plants brushing against her skin and listening to the chatter of the summer cicadas in the distance. The feel of something wet on her feet made her stop for a moment and frown. Was she near a creek or pond? She didn’t remember there being one the last time she came out. Kneeling down, Toph felt the ground with her fingertips. No, it wasn’t flowing like a creek would against her skin, and it was too shallow to be a pond too. A puddle maybe? But it hadn’t rained…

“Toph! Oh there you are. Come back inside, your father and I are worried sick!” Mei’s voice died in her throat as she saw what her daughter was kneeling in.

“Doctor! Someone get the Doctor!” She screamed, pulling her baby into her arms and wrapping them tightly around the little girl. Warm, sticky blood clung to her hands from where she clutched at her own daughters fingers. “Doctor!” The tiny boy just laid there on the ground, oblivious to the chaos around him.   
  
The sun was streaming through the windows before the doctor finally walked out of the room and turned to the two nobleman waiting outside the door with dark circles under their eyes. “Well, I don’t know how the boy came to be on Beifong property, but it’s certainly lucky that you found him when you did,” He said. “Any longer and he would’ve died from his wounds.” Mother and Father looked briefly at each other before they turned back to the Doctor.   
  
“How is he now Healer Zhilao?”

Zhilao sighed and wiped his brow. “He is better. I have relocated his shoulder, set what bones I can, and wrapped any open sore I could find.” He looked back to the room where the little boy lay on a mat upon the floor. “All that is left now is to wait for his body to recover and hope that infection does not set in.” The Beifong’s nodded.

“Thank you for your time Doctor. It was most appreciated.” A clap summoned a servant and a nod towards the physician had the steward handing the man a small pouch that upon inspection held nothing but gold coins. Giving a nod and respectful bow back to the two nobleman, the physician left the Beifong property.

“I’m glad that boy is alright” Mei sighed in relief.   
“But how did he end up in the middle of the complexes garden?” Toph’s father insisted, tugging on his goatee. “There was no way any intruders could make it that far into our gardens without being spotted, and with as heavily as he was bleeding there were no indications that he made his way through the gardens either. It’s as if he just...appeared out of nowhere,”

 

“Really dear, what reason would anyone have to infiltrate our home with a three year old?”   
  


“I suppose so.” He replied.

 

Toph waited until her nanny had finished dressing her and turned to start picking up the toys she had scattered about the floor last night  before darting out the door and out into the hallways. Keeping an ear out she let one hand trail against the walls as she stole around corners and darted out of sight of any servant Toph heard approaching. She was on a mission to meet the boy she had discovered last night, and she was going to find him regardless of her parents wishes for her to stay away. Just because she was blind didn’t mean she was a baby that needed to be cared for at every turn. She was almost 6 years old! She could take care of herself!

 

Hearing the telltale tread of the maids, Toph ducked back into a recessed alcove and crouched as low as she could. hiding between the legs of a wooden table stand. If she was lucky the servants wouldn’t notice her and would continue on.

 

“Have you seen the little stray that Lord and Lady Beifong picked up Taohua? He looks so pitiful all wrapped up in those bandages doesn’t he? I’m glad our Lady found him.”   
  
“The Lady may have been the one to call for a medic, but from what I hear it was the little Mistress that found the boy, all crumpled and half dead out in the gardens while she gave her guards the slip.”   
  
“No!” The first servant cried, stopping right in front of her hiding place. Toph covered her mouth and sat perfectly still, hoping that if she didn’t move they wouldn’t take note of her.

 

“Yes. It upset her parents greatly. I hear the boys been put in the southeast wing to be as far away from their daughter as possible. 

 

“It’s a shame I can’t go see him. I heard he has the most gorgeous green eyes!” 

“Ai! You should be ashamed of yourself!” The two maids giggled and continued on their route. Once their footsteps had passed out of her range of hearing, Toph carefully came back out into the hall and began trailing her hand against the wall again and turning right at the first possible moment.The southeast corner huh? That wasn’t too far. Hopefully she’d reach the room before her bodyguards could catch up. 


End file.
